Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ondrej Vetchý | ... | Frantisek Sláma | |
Krystof Hádek | ... | Karel Vojtisek | |
Tara Fitzgerald | ... | Susan Whitmore | |
Charles Dance | ... | Wing Commander Bentley | |
Oldrich Kaiser | ... | Jan Machatý | |
David Novotný | ... | Bedrich Mrtvý | |
Linda Rybová | ... | Hanicka Pecharova | |
Jaromír Dulava | ... | Railwayman Kanka | |
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Lukás Kantor | ... | Tom Tom |
Radim Fiala | ... | Jura Sysel | |
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Juraj Bernáth | ... | Jan Gregora |
Miroslav Táborský | ... | Vilha Houf | |
Hans-Jörg Assmann | ... | Doctor Blaschke | |
Thure Riefenstein | ... | German Officer Hesse | |
Anna Massey | ... | English Teacher |
March 15, 1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia. Czech and Slovak pilots flee to England, joining the RAF. After the war, back home, they are put in labor camps, suspected of anti-Communist ideas. This film cuts between a post-war camp where Franta is a prisoner and England during the war, where Franta is like a big brother to Karel, a very young pilot. On maneuvers, Karel crash lands by the rural home of Susan, an English woman whose husband is MIA. She spends one night with Karel, and he thinks he's found the love of his life. It's complicated by Susan's attraction to Franta. How will the three handle innocence, Eros, friendship, and the heat of battle? When war ends, what then? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
I absolutely loved this movie. Great, realistic looking combat footage for one thing and a touching, genuine story also. The calm, understated manner of the lead character, Franta, makes him very likable. The human relationships in the story seemed so very typical and possible of what you could expect in war time. The bond between Franta and Carel shows the loyalty wartime comrades can have for each other and that is often described in books and interviews with veterans. The subtitles do not detract from the story at all and actually serve to underline the problems the Czech pilots had in the RAF. The postwar storyline is a great reminder that for many the suffering of WW2 did not end in 1945, especially in Russian occupied countries. The cinematography was also very good. Wish I could have seen it on the big screen.